LANDS AND PLACES
Classical Athens was a powerful city-state in the Attica region in Greece. Famous for the monuments on the acropolis, such philosophers as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, and as the birthplace of democracy, it attracted also the interest of the apostle Paul. Paul visited Athens in the course of his second Missionary Journey, probably in AD 51. As he waited for his co-workers to join him, “his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols” (Acts 17:16). The Bible mentions the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers so prominent in the city’s intellectual life, as well as the city’s Areopagus, market, temples, and altars. Eventually Paul wrote two letters to the Thessalonians during his stay in Athens.
Evidence from burials in the necropolis of Kerameikos (an ancient burial ground) demonstrate that from 900 BC onwards Athens was one of the leading commercial centers in the region. During the Golden Age of Athenian democracy, the city embarked on an ambitious building program.
A myth explaining how Athens acquired its name is sculptured on the western pediment of the Parthenon. The goddess of wisdom, Athena, and the god of the seas, Poseidon, competed to be the city’s patron deity. Poseidon produced a salt water spring to symbolize naval power, but Athena created the olive tree, representing peace and prosperity.
At the time of Paul, the Romans ruled the then-known world but esteemed Greek arts, wisdom, language, and religion as the model for civilization. As a consequence, Romans identified their deities as counterparts to the Greek ones, incorporating Greek myths, iconography, and religious practices into their own worship.
The center of the city was the Roman Agora, east of the ancient market place. Entrance in the west was through the Gate of Athena Archegetis, while on the eastern side was an ancient Propylaeum consisting of four Ionic columns made of marble. The agora was a peristyle, an open space surrounded with columns and shops. It included a fountain, toilets, a large odeion (concert hall in form of a theater), a temple to the god Ares, and the Tower of the Winds, an octagonal horlogion (clocktower with a combination of sundials, water clock, and wind vane). The Areopagus (or Mars Hill to the Romans) is a prominent rock located northwest of the Acropolis. The name came from the fact that before the fifth century BC the council of city elders, similar to the Roman Senate, was named the Areopagus and met on the site. There the apostle Paul delivered his speech recorded in Acts 17:22-31. In it he referred to an altar with the inscription “to the unknown God.”
Numerous paintings on ancient Greek ceramic vessels allow us to see the type of worship performed in front of a Greek altar. Rectangular stone blocks about one meter in height, often with an ornamented top and inscriptions on the sides, stood at nearly every street corner. Worshippers offered liquid libations, fruits, bread, or incense on them. Whether animals were ritually killed as sacrifices outside the temple service is not known. Paul refers to food “offered to idols” (1 Cor 10:28). It may be that in Roman times meat was only figuratively given to the gods and later sold at the market. Romans also used to sprinkle some drops of wine to the deities before drinking.
There seems to be very little doubt that the Apostle Paul revisited Athens during his third Missionary Journey (Acts 20:2, 3), although Luke does not specifically mentions this fact.